Bad Asians
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- 129,00 kr
Utgivarens beskrivning
Li is an unsparing observer of our unsparing times' Susan Choi, author of Flashlight</p><p>'A smart, engrossing, beautifully observed examination of millennial friendship, social media and generational differences' Francesca Hornak, author of So Good to See You</p><p>Diana, Justin, Errol and Vivian have been best friends for as long as they can remember. They did everything their strict parents asked: studied hard, attended good universities, only to end up back in their childhood bedrooms with no jobs in sight.</p><p>So when Grace - neighbourhood golden girl turned Harvard Law dropout - asks to make a documentary about their post-grad limbo, they agree. It's not like her little movie will ever see the light of day. Until it does. Overnight, the video goes viral, catapulting their most cringeworthy moments to internet stardom and turning private confessions into public punchlines.</p><p>Eight years later, can the video that broke them apart also bring them back together? And is it too late to build the lives they once dreamed of?</p><p>Razor-sharp and emotionally resonant, Bad Asians is a story of youth, ambition and growing up online - a moving exploration of the friendships that will always feel like home.</p><p>PRAISE FOR BAD ASIANS:</p><p>'A sharp, propulsive novel about ambition, identity, and the bonds that shape us' Weike Wang, author of Rental House</p><p>'Captures the tenderness and mess of youth. A book that reminds us how little we know about the people we treasure most' Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, author of Starling Days</p><p>'A wild, propulsive ride of a novel that explores the damaging spiral of social media fame with razor-sharp observations' Emma Nanami Strenner, author of The Other Heart</p><p>'A story for all the formerly "gifted and talented kids". . . offers a delightful dose of nostalgia - and an affecting interrogation of the personas we put on, both online and in real life' Katie Yee, author of Maggie; or, A Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar</p>
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the whip-smart latest from Li (Number One Chinese Restaurant), four Chinese American friends are forced to confront the truth of how they view one another and themselves when a documentary about them goes viral. The story begins in 2009 when recent University of Maryland economics grads Diana Zhang, Justin Yu, Errol Chen, and Vivian Wang return home to their North Potomac, Md., neighborhood to weather the rough job market. While growing up together, they were friends with Grace Li, a wunderkind Harvard grad and aspiring documentary filmmaker. Back home, Grace convinces them to appear in her film, Bad Asians. The film is a hit on YouTube, launching Grace's budding film career but pigeonholing the foursome into stereotypes, from overachiever Diana and basic girl Vivian to egotistical Errol and "hottie with a body" Justin. Li excels in her character work, picking up three years later to show how each of the four finds themselves following the paths they'd hoped to resist, and concluding in 2016 with Grace's epiphany related to the film ("I saw clearly what it looks like when you live your life for someone else"). Throughout, Li offers piercing social commentary on the expectations placed on her characters and how those pressures were exacerbated by the Great Recession. Readers will tear through this.
